Client's Testimonial

The team at Developers.dev was phenomenal. Their UI/UX experts created a journey that boosted our mobile conversion rate by 35%, and their AI team built a recommendation engine that increased our AOV by 18%. They gave us the platform we need to become a $100M brand.

Sarah Jenkins, VP of Ecommerce, Aura Beauty

Client Introduction

Aura Beauty is a fast-growing, direct-to-consumer skincare brand with a strong social media presence. With annual revenues hitting $40M, their Shopify Plus store, while once effective, was becoming a bottleneck. They faced challenges with site speed during high-traffic sales events, and their ability to create unique, content-rich shopping experiences was limited by the platform's template structure. They needed a technology platform that matched their premium brand identity and could scale to their goal of $100M ARR.

Problem

Aura Beauty's monolithic Shopify Plus site was slow, especially on mobile, leading to high cart abandonment rates. The marketing team was completely dependent on developers for even minor content changes, killing their agility and ability to launch campaigns quickly.

Key Challenges

Performance

The new site needed to achieve sub-second load times globally to maximize conversions.

Content & Commerce Integration

The platform had to seamlessly blend rich editorial content (blog posts, tutorials) with shoppable products.

Marketing Autonomy

Empower the marketing team to build and launch new landing pages and campaigns without writing a single line of code.

Data Migration

Seamlessly migrate all customer, product, and order data from Shopify Plus with zero downtime.

Our Solution

Developers.dev proposed a "Headless CMS & Commerce Pod" to architect a state-of-the-art composable commerce solution.

🌐 Headless Architecture

We used BigCommerce as the headless commerce engine for its robust APIs and backend functionality, and Contentful as the headless CMS for its intuitive content management capabilities.

⚡ Gatsby Front-End

We built a custom front-end using Gatsby.js, a modern React framework, to create a lightning-fast Progressive Web App (PWA).

🤖 AI Personalization

We integrated an AI/ML model that analyzed user browsing behavior to power a "Personalized Skincare Routine" recommender, significantly increasing AOV.

🎨 Custom Page Builder

We created a component-based page builder in Contentful, allowing the marketing team to assemble new, visually stunning landing pages from a library of pre-approved brand components.

Implementation and Execution

Tech Stack Selection

A collaborative workshop to choose the best-in-breed headless technologies for Aura's specific needs.

UI/UX Design Sprint

A one-week intensive sprint to design a mobile-first, conversion-optimized user journey.

Agile Development

The project was managed in 2-week sprints using Jira, with a dedicated Slack channel for real-time communication.

Comprehensive QA

The QA team performed extensive performance, security, and cross-browser testing to ensure a flawless launch.

SEO-Focused Migration

We executed a meticulous migration plan, mapping all old URLs to new ones to preserve and enhance their SEO authority.

A/B Testing

Post-launch, we used A/B testing to continuously optimize the user experience, particularly the checkout funnel.

Positive Outcome

📈 35% Increase in Mobile Conversion Rate

The lightning-fast PWA and optimized UX dramatically improved the mobile shopping experience.

⚡ Average Page Load Time Under 1 Second

The site's performance far surpassed that of their competitors, leading to higher engagement.

💰 18% Increase in Average Order Value

The AI-powered recommendation engine proved highly effective at cross-selling.

🚀 90% Reduction in Time-to-Market for Campaigns

The marketing team could now launch new campaigns in hours instead of weeks.

Why Choose Us

💡 Ecosystem of Experts

We provided a team with specialized skills in headless, AI, and UI/UX.

✅ Verifiable Process Maturity

Our organized sprints and transparent communication kept the project on schedule.

🔒 Full IP & Code Ownership

Aura Beauty owns the custom front-end and all integrations.

🤖 AI-Augmented Delivery

We leveraged AI to create a key feature that directly drove revenue.

👍 Risk-Free Trial Period

The initial design sprint proved our capabilities and vision.

💯 Guaranteed Talent Quality

The team was composed of senior React developers and headless commerce experts.

🧠 Deep Domain Expertise

We understood the unique needs of a high-growth D2C brand.

🔗 White-Label & Seamless Integration

We became an extension of Aura's internal marketing and tech teams.

🚀 Future-Ready Technology

The composable architecture allows them to easily add new channels and features in the future.

Conclusion

By embracing a modern, headless architecture with Developers.dev, Aura Beauty successfully shed the limitations of their old platform. They now have a high-performance, flexible, and intelligent ecommerce engine that empowers their team and provides a superior customer experience, paving the way for their next phase of growth.

D2C Headless Commerce Launch: Aura Beauty Achieves 35% Mobile Conversion Uplift and Sub-Second Load Times

Industry Cosmetics & Skincare (D2C)